Editors note: CNN's "The Next List" will profile Ayah Bdeir, founder of the company littleBits, on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
By The Next List Staff, CNN
(CNN) - In an effort to inspire and equip the next generation of innovators, Ayah Bdeir has created what she says is the next-generation Lego. Called littleBits, her tools, which are not affiliated with Lego, aim to change the way kids learn about science, engineering and basic circuits.
Each littleBits is a pre-engineered electronic module that snaps together with tiny magnets to create just about anything: light, sound, sensors, power, switches and different types of displays. There is no limit to what a person can create, Bdeir says.
No matter how hard she tries, Bdeir said she can't keep littleBits in stock. These friendly, brightly colored blocks won best toy at the 2012 Toy Fair, and if Bdeir has her way, they’ll be in millions of homes next year.
“The idea is that we want to make every single electronic interaction in the world into a ready to use brick,” says Bdeir. “And you can build larger circuits without having a degree in engineering, without having to solder, without having to wire and without having to program.”
Each week, CNN's "The Next List" profiles innovators, visionaries and agents of change. They’re not household names just yet, but they’re movers and shakers in their own worlds. We’re introducing them to you because these individuals are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas.
WHO: Host Dr. Sanjay Gupta
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We just need to start forcing girls into sciences. Stop letting them choose what they want to do. Clearly they don't know what they want to do or be when they grow up. We need to tell them what to be and do. Girls have too many choices and they are incapable of making good ones on their own.
As notable as the cause is of getting girls interested in science, M. Danby, you want to avoid blowback in these situations. Forcing anyone one way often leads to rebellion towards the other extreme, and then we create an anti-intellect generation destined to destroy scientific progress.
He was being sarcastic you took
If you take apart some household appliances you will have a mother load of little bits. That's how we rolled our own back in the days.
An interesting idea. I wonder how it compares to, say, the Snap Circuits line from Elenco, or the Gakken EX-150 kit? It does look more free-form than either of those. I'd also love to take a look at the manual, as my biggest beef with electronics kits is that they usually give you a pile of circuits that you can assemble (sirens, blinking lights, radios, etc.), but don't teach anything about electronics, even at the circuit level, e.g. oscillators, amplifiers, digital logic. Good luck to Ms. Bdeir.
This will fail on multiple levels, perhaps the least of which is a total lack of originality. Top of the list: safety concerns by a world that would be nannied to the nth degree. See "Bucky Balls."
1700 emergency room incidents from swallowing rare earth magnets in the three years starting Jan 2009–doesn't sound like nanny state action to me to regulate the things to discourage ingestion. I don't see LittleBits being attractive to swallow, and as long as the magnets are properly encased per CPSC rules there should be no problem.
As for originality–the market will decide.
I'd love for you to fall in a well.
Troll.
this is a great (business) idea, I'm sure their much cheaper than legos and more functional
I don't think there is anything particularly novel about this idea. What is interesting about this product to me however is the presentation. These things look like a lot of fun to play with.
While this is nice, there are sets from Elenco that are similar and 5 times cheaper on amazon
Modular Robotics already did this years ago..
Not to be an old sour puss, but such toys have existed for decades. I inherited a Lectron kit from the 1960s from my uncle in 1980. He had a BIG kit so I could makes all sorts of things from radios to sound/light alarm triggers. I would even say the Lectron kits were far more refined because you could see the circuity diagrams on them so your completed device looked like a circuit diagram.
THE LINK
http://www.retrothing.com/2007/03/electronic_domi.html
To me, the idea of Lego is that you build and you see how it is put together. This lady's idea could be called the next lego, except her lego pieces are black boxes to the kids playing them.
Where are the black boxes?
Wikipedia says:
In science and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed solely in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge of its internal workings, that is, its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human mind.
The opposite of a black box is a system where the inner components or logic are available for inspection, which is sometimes known as a white box, a glass box, or a clear box.
It's analogous to the step from the diode to the transistor...and what a world that spawned! A wonderful step from individual components to modular electronics for the masses.
Did you mean *vacuum tubes* to transistors? Diodes are semiconductor devices like transistors are. The main structural differences are the number of contacts. Diodes have two, transistors have three. That's not of course the fundamental difference, but that IS required for it to function.
Saw her presentation on TED. The price point is still a little too high. Hopefully economies of scale will kick in.
Interesting product, and I must say the lady entrepreneur is easy on the eyes. Best of luck to Ms. (Mrs.?) Bdeir.
Nice idea. Too bad each "little bit" costs about $14. I guess thats why they are the next gen LEGO.
Little toys are easily broken and easily lost. Magnets are a real problem in little toys.
Snap circuits appears to have similar capacity, no magnets and is very robust.
Next, on Shark Tank...
Think of the possibilities if MORE than the currant 25% of Women in the US were studying Engineering and other sciences!!!! Why is education and student assistance so low on the must have funding list? It's no wonder we are 25th in the world for education.
If she was attractive I might listen to her.
The currant 25% of women? Are the other 75% raisins?
Easy E, I just about wet myself. That was hilarious.
Reblogged this on relativelyclever and commented:
HOLY CRAP I WANT ONE.
Doing what you love as a career means folwloing your heart even when it doesn't make sense to those around you. It often involves taking risks to to find the perfect combination of what you believe in, what you love to do, and the right balance for that particular time in your life.